The Best Employers list, compiled by Aon Hewitt, a global HR consulting firm, is determined in large part by surveying employees. Their engagement is measured by their views on areas such as leadership excellence, manager effectiveness, supporting productivity, career development and recognition. Maclean’s asked all 50 organizations (listed alphabetically) what they think earned them such high marks from their staff. In addition, we’ve included the top areas where each company was rated strongest by its employees, as well as the number of years it has been on the list.

Here are the highlights:

Aecon Group Inc.Toronto and Calgary Construction and engineering Years on list: 7

A rigorous “safety-first” culture is celebrated at an annual company-wide safety day.

An?ownership culture is developed through a share purchase plan and profit-sharing.

The annual employee conference features leading speakers, such as Chris Hadfield.

The recognition program helps engage and inspire workers to reward colleagues.

The company is a progressive organization that seeks to involve workers in its growth.

METHODOLOGY: A total of 282 Canadian employers took part in this year’s Best Employers studies. Aon Hewitt identified the Best Employers based primarily on survey responses from almost 280,000 Canadian employees at these organizations, gauging employee engagement levels and work environment factors. Participating employers were also required to survey their executive teams. According to Aon Hewitt’s definition, employees are engaged when they “say, stay and strive”: They speak positively about their employer to others, are committed to staying with their current employer and are motivated by their organization’s leaders and culture to go “above and beyond” to contribute to business success. On average, 78 per cent of employees were engaged at Best Employers this year, down from 79 per cent last year.

Canada’s 50 best employers

I worked a Mcdonalds for 4 and a half years. From the summer after grade 7 until the day I graduated after 12. I went off flight school afterwords. We had a really good owner for the longest time, but he bought some more restaurents and moved away. The new owner said he didn’t have to give me a scholoship becuase it was a private not corperate mcdonalds. Except he was to lazy to take it off the signs that they offered scholorships. So they kind of blindsided me, he said he might cut me a cheque, witch would have screwed over everyone else afterwords becuase they would just get a flat out no. Anyway he never got that cheque to me, im a year into my training and boy I hate being broke. Devoted 35 hours a week in my grade 10 11 and 12 years and got no help for my situation afterwords. Thanks Mcdonalds. Corperate also said they couldnt do anything, because it was a private Mcdonalds.

You should have spent more time in school instead of working… your spelling sucks! 11 errors in just a few sentences: afterwards, restaurants, scholarship, corporate, too lazy, scholarships, afterwards, I’m, afterwards, corporate and couldn’t.

His point is he got screwed by McDonald’s, which he did. But thanks Emily and Guest for the needless and sarcastic commentary on his spelling in a comment that was likely hastily written because its just a casual internet post, not a thesis statement. And spelling correctly, or incorrectly, doesn’t determine someone’s intelligence – some of the smartest and most creative people I know are turrible spellers, while I’ve met plenty of scholarly types who’ve put many to sleep while imparting their vast wisdom.

Also, sentences aren’t supposed to start with numbers, if we’re being picky.

You said it right , those who are concerned about spelling happen to be the meanest and the pettiest , they might get a job as a school teacher and abuse the students but can not accomplish any thing more.

Board of director & CEO enrichment is the priority for high tech companies. Keep the individual workers busy & afraid. The last staff meeting I attended featured a YouTube video with the theme : “your salary is irrelevant ” .

Lots of Credit Unions found on this list. The customer service from Credit Unions is also much higher than the Big 5 Banks. I guess by treating your employees well they treat their customers well. What a revolutionary concept

I strongly disagree with the previous post. I work for one of the 5 big banks and we’ve won J.D. Power highest in customer sastifaction 8 years in a row. Not to mention I know alot of employee’s and myself strive to deliver a great experience and interaction with each and every client.

I am sure you operate with a high degree of pride; however, like Tim Tam, I also have received by far the best customer service ever from my credit union. I used the same “big 5″ bank for years and years — and the people who worked there knew me, were friendly and helpful — but they had no flexibility over big national rules and regs. My CU MANAGER actually called me at home one year because I hadn’t purchased my RRSPs yet — he just wanted to make sure I got them if I needed them. Amazing: I was in the throes of looking after a dying parent, and forgotten all about time — so he did it on the phone for me, and I just popped in and signed. Also: annual dividends, which I have never received from a bank!

I heard that less than 300 firms were surveyed. I also saw a 2011 Stats Can list that showed there were 21,500 employers in Canada with 100 or more employees. It would be interesting to know how companies were actually selected for the survey, and how anyone can think this is a reasonable representation of Canadian employers.

That’s often true of many of this type of surveys, was it true for this one as well (I would not be surprised – I see Bennett Jones on a lot of these lists, i suspect they just join every one they can find).

From above — maybe posted after your comment: “METHODOLOGY: A total of 282 Canadian employers took part in this
year’s Best Employers studies. Aon Hewitt identified the Best Employers
based primarily on survey responses from almost 280,000 Canadian
employees at these organizations, gauging employee engagement levels and
work environment factors. Participating employers were also required to
survey their executive teams. According to Aon Hewitt’s definition,
employees are engaged when they “say, stay and strive”: They speak
positively about their employer to others, are committed to staying with
their current employer and are motivated by their organization’s
leaders and culture to go “above and beyond” to contribute to business
success. On average, 78 per cent of employees were engaged at Best
Employers this year, down from 79 per cent last year.”

I flew out to Winnipeg this summer to Birchwood, Ford….I bought a new F250, my experience was fantastic..If management treats their employees half as good as I was treated by the whole staff, Then I can understand why they are on this list, and rightly so Thanks again Birchwood Ford.

Farmer, sorry to disappoint you but not all the employees are important to this company. Customers however are of high priority which is the way it should be. The claim that a executive dines with each employee after 90 days is not true. I have a relative working there over four years and she states this has never happen for her. The mention about the Birchwood Bucks program for employees is true but for select employees only. That would be salesmen, service providers and the mechanics. That is because they bring in the cash through sales and service promotion. The program is an insenttive for them to produce. There are many other employees performing tasks such as administrative functions, receptionists, Lot attendants, shuttle drivers, telephone operators etc that are not considered in this program. The company has somewhat of a high turnover of many of these employees because of the low wages and in some cases no benefits for part time employees. There appears to be a class system where as employees connected to sales and service are treated much better then the hourly people. just though the truth should be known

Softchoice Corporation, an IT reseller in Toronto, Ontario should be on this list! They provide 2 volunteer days each year, run their own charity Softchoice Cares for which they match donations, some employees can work from home, you can bring your dog to work with you everyday if you want to, they have a gym for employees to use, an RRSP matching program, a profit-sharing program, cash and trip prizes for top performers, etc!

ATB is an excellent company to
work for; this is no surprise to me at all. Were the best place to work and the
best place to bank! I came from a very large world bank, and I have never
looked back. They treat their employees with respect and give them the will and
tools to make it the place to work! You should remember it’s not always the bank;
it may be you that was the issue!

ATB is definitely THE best place to work for. No amount of money can match working from home and the flexibility on the hours. For the last year and a half, I am able to drop off and pick up my child to and from school, attend his school functions and able to volunteer on weekdays. All this and my work-productivity level is better than ever. Not to mention, the stress level in commuting has dramatically decreased and less gas/mileage consumption. Excellent managers and co-workers. Maybe you should try applying at ATB Investors Services Inc. :-)

Ttc is a great place to work working conditions are great the people are great and I belive we do a great job with what we have to work with. And it could do a better job if we werent constanly belittled by media and the likes of giorgio mammollitis. We still provide a great service with less funding then any other transit in north america. New manager mr.byford has done an ok job getting managment to do their jobs and it shows. But as for contracting out or privitising its a bad path there should be no profit in providing public service. Public servants paid by city work for the city. Private companys can leave you high and dry in a hurry when they come in low bid and come crying for more when reality sets in and they can’t pay the bills. See australia or london. Public service and public unions have come along way and we are working to be more productive the days of 10 guys one shovelling are gone but the stereio type still rampant.we jave some of the most skilled people here. And yes janitors get paid great but it is just a entry level job most go on to technical jobs with training elimination of these jobs is a bad presedents as we all deserve a living wadge. In all I belive we have the best work force out there.

good to hear.I don t know if I could do that, a tough boring job with a lot of public antipathy whipped up by the media and right wing politicians with no policy up their sleeves and no brains in their head.

I once worked for an organization that won several top employer awards. It was the worst organization I’ve ever experienced. A few bullies in the C suite ran it on fear and intimidation and as you can imagine it was highly dysfunctional. Everyone was too afraid to confront the bullies because if you tried, you were let go. Ever since then I don’t put any stock in these awards. The evaluation methods are obviously invalid.

“A total of 282 Canadian employers took part in this year’s Best Employers studies…”
This list is completely meaningless for that reason alone. Being in the top 18% of companies that selectively decided to self-adulate does not mean that you are one of Canada’s “Best” 50 employers.

This is such a great post! Thanks so much for sharing, it’s an incredibly interesting read if nothing else, but I think also actual, very valuable information for all those young people having such hard times finding work.

Hatch is just about the worst company to work for unless you’re one of the inner circle suck ups who own shares. For 90% of employees, it’s an underpaid slog with poor benefits, poor management, no direction and a constant fear of being fired.

I think Macleans meant “Canada’s 50 ONLY Employers”. since I’d be surprised if we actually had any more than that, these days.
Any Canadian who is atleast older than 40, or 50… can easily appreciate just how unbelievably hard it is, and will be, for the canadian youth today.

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